The Near Field Arrangement
With the advent of close proximity near field communication systems which use the magnetic near field for communication (including the carrier based Near Field Communication (NFC) and carrier-less Near Field Ping (NFP) systems), a variety of new applications have emerged that can benefit from these close proximity near field communication systems.
The close proximity near field communication systems can provide data transfer over a wireless communication channel within a range of a few centimeters and enables a user to exchange data between devices by simply performing a sweep, wave, tap or touch gesture of one device in close proximity to another like device or other appropriately enabled device. This data can then also be used by the devices for initiating further actions, such as pairing and establishing a wireless network so the devices can communicate wirelessly.
This pairing process can be done by pressing buttons on both devices, or if the devices are equipped with near field communications circuits, they can be brought into close proximity to exchange the necessary data. Thus the device pairing is established through the near field touch gesture. By bringing the mobile device within close proximity to a fixed device enables the exchange of near field data, including PAN identifiers (ID's), MAC addresses, channel ID's, SSID's, security keys, etc. necessary to establish a long range wireless network. The long range wireless data channel can then be used as a data connection once the mobile device is withdrawn out of the close proximity near field range. In this way a mobile device can establish a wireless connection to a device by simply bringing the two devices within near field communications range (which is generally just a few centimeters).
One of the devices needs to be a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, smart remote, tablet, portable media player, handheld controller, keyfob, or the like and the second device can be another mobile device, but is typically a fixed device, such as a Point of Sale (POS) terminal, computer or door lock. The ability for two fixed devices to be paired using the described near field method is outside the scope of current technology.
Power Requirements of a Fixed Device
In the arrangement described above, the fixed device is typically mains powered and as such has substantially no power consumption constraints. In some systems the fixed device will be the master and typically will produce broadcast near field transmissions in the form of a modulated carrier, such that a slave mobile device can detect these signals, wake up from a low-power sleep state and begin communication with the master device. Alternatively the user would start an application (app) on the mobile device enabling near field capability. The full data transmission must occur while the devices are within the near field communication range.
In the arrangement where the near field equipped fixed device is mains powered, it is required to be positioned at a point having access to at least the active and neutral wiring of the mains power supply. This position may not be conveniently accessible by a user of a mobile device and therefore limits the ability to perform a near field communications tap action between the fixed and mobile devices. This limitation restricts the application and use of near field systems and the benefits they offer.
A Lighting Arrangement
It is becoming more common that mechanical light switches are being replaced with switches that contain electronic circuits. This allows greater functionality beyond a mechanical switch and can include diming, timing or wireless remote control functionality, to name a few.
Typically a light switch is located on a wall to control a light that is installed in the ceiling or some other remote or high place. The light itself requires active and neutral wires to operate. However, it is commonplace to feed the active wire down the wall cavity to one side of the light switch, with the other side of the light switch connected to a switched active wire that returns back up the wall cavity to the light. Turning the switch on (closing the switch contacts) connects the feed active wire to the switched active wire, thus providing power to the light. The switch allows the user to turn the light on or off. In this arrangement, no neutral wire is available at the light switch as it is wired directly to the light or lighting circuit itself.
This poses a problem, when electronic circuits are required to be powered since the active and neutral lines are rarely available at a light switch. There are a number of solutions to this problem.
A battery, capacitor, super cap, or some other method of power storage can be added to the system to power the circuits, however then there is a requirement to replenish this storage. This can be achieved by adding a solar cell, or adding power scavenging circuits that harvest power while the load is switched on, however both of these solutions have their own problems. In the first case, if the room is normally dark, little energy will be available from the solar cell and in the second case, if the light or load is of low wattage, or it is not turned on often, then very little energy can be harvested. In these cases the continuous quiescent current of the electronic circuits can deplete the energy storage and result in operational failure.
The way to overcome this is to run the neutral wire down the wall cavity. With the active and neutral wires now available, the electronic circuits can be powered from this source. However, this installation step can be very labor intensive and expensive to retrofit, particularly in solid walls.
Another method that has been employed is to utilize a switch mechanism that generates its own power when used. Energy is harvested from the action of the switch which may be used to generate a spark or to power a small generator. This produces energy that can be used to transmit a wireless transmission to command a lighting controller, allowing the light to be turned on or off. The problem with this system is that it has no power source available to operate the electronic circuits for pairing or device configuration, so the switch is generally hard coded to communicate to a light controller, limiting its usefulness.
PLC Extenders
It is becoming increasingly more common to use exiting mains power wiring in a home to transfer data around the home. This technology is referred to as Power Line Communication (PLC) where AC signals are superimposed on the 100V or 240V 50 Hz or 60 Hz mains voltage. A PLC extender device is equipped with an input connector or wireless antenna to accept the signals to be transferred over the power line. Ethernet and Wi-Fi PLC extenders are common. Multiple PLC extenders can be plugged into mains socket around the home and need to be addressed using software or switch setting to enable them to communicate with each other. The complexity of setup is often a barrier to the scalability of systems to include many devices and types as consumers find it increasingly more confusing, frustrating and time consuming to setup and maintain these systems. If an improved method was available that eliminated manual switch settings or software configuration then the advantages of PLC could be extended to include many devices such as light controllers, power outlets, security sensors, etc.
Toys
There is an increased use of mobile phones used to control devices using apps. However, in the toy market, mobile phones have made little penetration despite their technical ability to display information, communicate with or control devices such as toys. Part of the reason for this is that phones are seen as personal devices, often owned by the parents who would be hesitant to hand over their phone to their child as a play thing.
There has been an explosion of toys supplied with radio controls such as cars, helicopters, etc. however these technologies are all essentially the same; a single remote control controlling a single device. The technology has essentially stalled at this point mainly due to a lack of simple and inexpensive methods to wirelessly connect multiple systems together. With the current state of the art, it would be a complex process to say, interconnect many devices wirelessly and have them operate together, be controlled separately or as a collective.
Additionally, there is a practical limit on battery management. It is difficult enough for parents to keep track of this process with individual toys. Currently it is often required to change many batteries per device, or plug in the device for recharge. If multiple devices existed in the same system, each requiring individual battery management, the process would become intolerable for all but the most patient of parents. Additionally, introducing conventional wireless technology to a device has significant impact on battery life.
What is needed is a method that is affordable and simple enough for children to operate. With the cost of smartphones decreasing and the ability to build sophisticated remote controls inexpensively, the controller is clearly a reducing barrier. The barrier today is the mechanism and method of establishing a wireless network to include multiple devices and a way to simply establish a wireless network and control infrastructure that is suitable for the toy market.
The invention described discloses apparatus and methods that use ultra-low power wireless networks, methods to associate multiple wired and wireless devices, as well as a superior wireless power transfer and recharging system for improved battery management; based on new and innovative ways to use near field technologies which overcome, minimize the abovementioned problems or provide an alternative.
Adding Near Field Capability to a Mobile
With the increasing norm for electronic devices to be connected in some way to mobile phones and operated via an app, there is an increasing market for these “appcessories” to be physically attached to the phone and to operate while connected. The mobile phone and connected device can then operate as a single mobile unit and as such, there is a significant benefit if the attached device can be as small as possible. Eliminating a battery from the attached device or driving the battery capacity down has the significant benefits of physical size reduction and user maintenance benefits with battery charging and exchange.
Although the near field communication protocol NFC is becoming more common, many mobile devices are not equipped with any near field capability. In those cases it would be beneficial to be able to retrofit a suitable near field capability to a mobile device. Preferably the near field technology would be of ultra-low power since the mobile device has a limited battery capacity, which would make it possible and practical to effect mobile to mobile near field communications without excessive battery current drain.
With the advent of personal media players and subsequently media player compatible mobile phones, it has been possible to provide audio playback through attaching headphones to these devices. Devices can be attached to a mobile phone using wireless networks such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or directly connected through the USB or audio connectors.
It would be advantageous to add near field capability to a phone using the audio jack as it is a commonly available and standard port. NFC dongle products already exist on the market that plug into the audio port. However, the power requirement of NFC exceeds the supply capability of the audio port, thus these dongles are equipped with batteries which must be replaced, causing inconvenience to the user.
The current state of the art utilizes the left or right audio channels and if available, the microphone input, as connections to the device. In particular, one of the audio channels is typically used to drive a signal to power the device and the other audio channel is typically used to provide serial data from the phone to the device. If the device needs to send data to the phone, the microphone input on the phone can be used.
Historically this method has been suitable for simple, low power devices. For example a mag stripe reader, which requires little circuitry to convert the alternating magnetic field of the card mag stripe into a voltage waveform suitable for the microphone input of a mobile phone. The data is then processed on the phone using an app.
Other devices, such as a stereo Bluetooth adaptor, are far more complex in that they consist of wireless circuits and a microprocessor. However, these devices rely solely on a built in battery for their power source and simply use the left and right audio channels as the stereo audio source. They commonly use USB connectors for recharging the built in battery which is the only power source and therefore scaled to provide sufficient power capacity to run the circuits in the device.
It would be beneficial if an ultra-low power, battery-less near field data communications device could be added to a mobile device using the standardized audio jack. This would overcome the current state of the art problems of near field communications between mobile to mobile and mobile to battery-less devices.
It would then also be beneficial to be able to use this suitably equipped mobile device to establish communications between multiple devices that are not easily portable.
The invention described herein, covers a variety of technologies that form part of a single, holistic solution that allows an arrangement of multiple mobile and fixed devices to communicate using a combination of near field and long range wired or wireless mechanisms. Multiple problems are solved arising from the limited portability of devices and limited power source availability to devices, that can restrict device positioning, reducing the ability for a user to access these devices needed to effect close proximity near field data transfers.